Navy and Air Force missile expert Thomas S. Amlie has died at 85. His fingerprints – he was part of the simple-is-better school that waxes and wanes in the U.S. military — date back to the Eisenhower Administration:
Tom Amlie worked on the Sidewinder project as a young Navy lieutenant, and he later became technical director at
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No program better illustrates the pathologies of the weapons acquisition process as it is currently practiced by the Military – Industrial – Congressional Complex (MICC) than the entirely predictable, and in this case, predicted, …
Last night, President Obama opened his State of the Union address by referencing the sacrifices and courage of America’s military personnel as they return home from combat. The President’s rhetoric was moving, but unfortunately, words are simply words and have not been fully backed up with action that supports America’s heroes.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will announce Friday afternoon that the Marines’ F-35B fighter is being taken off “probation” and production will continue. It has been under intense scrutiny due to problems with its STOVL – short takeoff, vertical landing – capability that apparently are being fixed. Seeing as he’s heading …
…the Navy awarded this $15 million contract (click on it to enlarge) Thursday. “The program seeks to maximize the financial value of the properties and leverage that value with private sector expertise to offset the cost of ongoing operations or obviate the need for capital investments,” the announcement says. Obviate the need for …
It’s progress, of a sort, when the Navy’s tailhook woes are linked to an actual tailhook – the hook that grabs the arresting cable on an aircraft carrier and lets the plane land safely – and not the debauchery that was common at the Tailhook Assocation’s annual gatherings. That kind of Tailhook trouble exploded into a …
How can the Air Force lose a blimp two-thirds the size of a football field? When the winds are wrong, alas, anything can happen.
Battleland readers of a certain vintage may recall, with wonder and delight, the goofy …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7psXvZp9xI]
You may recall a couple of weeks ago when we reported, based on our own crude analysis of a Pentagon contract announcement, that the latest batch of engines for the Marine’s F-35 fighter would cost $129 million apiece, five times the $25 million sticker on the Air Force F-35 …
Great Washington Post piece on China’s intense desire for stability on Korean peninsula, thus the clear backing of the “Great Successor” Kim Jong Eun. Wrap-up paragraph says it all:
The notion of a democratized Korean Peninsula
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is coming to the Pentagon podium Thursday the explain how he’s going to trim $450 billion of the U.S. military’s nearly $6 trillion spending plan over the coming decade.
Because the …
Remember in the good ol’ days of bullets and bombs, when the military’s weapons were designed to kill bad guys? Things have gotten a lot foggier in today’s world of poorly-acting civilians, starving children, and assorted …
